More people probably indirectly think about Edward “Butch” O’Hare than most other WWII personages, as he’s the guy Chicago O’Hare International Airport is named for.
Ernie Pyle
Mussolini
Oppenheimer
Eisenhower
I’m struck by how easily I found it to name historical figures from WWII. I listed several names in my earlier post because they all came to me at once. I could name 20 if I thought about it.
I found the WWI thread much harder. I’m surprised at how little I know about that war’s historical figures.
Quisling.
Ribbentrop and Molotov. As Bob Duport says in Anthony Powell’s novels, “sounds like a pair of performing monkeys.”
Audie Murphy.
Patton came to mind first. Don’t know why, there are a lot of others.
Otto Skorzeny
In keeping with OP’s Eastern Front theme:
Soviet Lieutenant General Vasili Chuikov.
Chuikov was commander in chief of the Stalingrad garrison throughout its epic, victorious, turning-point defense.
Two years and three months after the last German remnants surrendered in Stalingrad, Chuikov, now CIC of the 8th Guards Army, led Soviet forces in the Battle of Berlin, and personally took the final surrender of the German forces in the city.
Haven’t seen the other replies, but
Patton
Montgomery
Eisenhower
Goering
Goebbels
Rommel
A lot of people who speak English.
I could name dozens, but Churchill was the first who came to mind.
Eisenhower. I’m from Kansas, and so was he. Ok, OK, he was born in Texas. But his family left there when he was a month old, and moved to Abilene. He always said he was proud to be from there, that’s where his Presidential Library and Museum is, and that’s where he’s buried.
My youngest sister was born in 1959, and my folks told me if she had been a boy she would have been named Dwight.
I expect there are plenty of non-English speakers who would agree that there is more to a World war than a war between only two nations, fought on one continent, with no naval combat. Some of those who agree might even be native Japanese or Chinese speakers.
Absolutely true. It’s often overlooked by us Brits that Japan invaded in China in 1937.
It’s also overlooked that, while not denigrating the British efforts, we wouldn’t have been likely to have been on the winning side in either of the World Wars without the USA.
We didn’t need you in 1966, though… it was a Russian that sorted us out.
My first thought was Eisenhower, followed closely by Stalin, but that’s mostly just because I’ve remarked before on the fact that two of the war’s key figures were named “Ironworker” and “Steel”.
Can’t believe this will be the first post to name Harry S Truman